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Light brown, gilled mushroom showing what appears to be a dark spore print on the fallen leaves around it.
Pacific Northwest rain forest. Growing at the base of a Red Alder tree in partial sunlight. Surrounded by fir, cedar, and Big-leaf maple. Ground cover of Oregon grape and Salal.
Spotted on Apr 15, 2012
Submitted on May 20, 2012
7 Comments
You're welcome. And nice find!
Thanks for all the help in finding an ID for this mushroom.
Spring Agrocybe (Agrocybe praceox) fruits in April, is widely distributed in North America and has a dark brown spore print. Hard Agrocybe (Agrocybe dura) typically doesn't fruit until May, but is more likely to develop a cracked cap.
..from what little I know of fungi, splitting of caps can occur with age - you can see that this mushroom is mature-pics #1 & 2 show slight wrinkling at the centre and margins of the cap. The conical or convex cap flattens out as the mushrooms mature and the margins are no longer able to hold shape so they split at the margins.
Maybe the splits around the edge of the cap are from the sun. Does anyone know?
Also the fact that it is fruiting in April could help with the ID as there are fewer mushrooms that fruit in the spring than the fall!
Really looks like a dark spore print on the leaves underneath. Can anyone ID this for us?